A SCOTTISH zoo has welcomed an adorable Pallas's cat as part of a European breeding programme.
Edinburgh Zoo announced the public could now meet Akiko (below) after arriving from Banham Zoo in Norwich last week.
Pallas’s cats, which live across east and central Asia, face various threats and have historically received little research and conservation attention compared to larger cat species.
The species has been threatened by habitat loss and degradation due to agricultural expansion and infrastructural development, as well as loss of their preferred prey and predation by domestic dogs.
Their secretive nature and the remoteness of their habitat also make them difficult to study, and they are amongst the least known wild cat species in the world.
Andrew Laing, senior animal keeper at Edinburgh Zoo, said: “We are thrilled to have Pallas’s cats at the zoo again and are looking forward to having a breeding pair soon that will hopefully help boost the population of the species.
“Akiko has been settling in well to his new home and we are looking forward to bringing in a mate for him in the next few months.”
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, the wildlife charity that runs Edinburgh Zoo, has managed the European breeding program and studbook for the species for more than 15 years.
The charity helped establish the global conservation project Pallas’s Cat International Conservation Alliance (PICA) alongside project partners Nordens Ark, based in Sweden, and Snow Leopard Trust.
